THE DIVISION WITHIN THE U.S.

The political polarization that is confronting the United States does not come from ordinary people. It has come from the seat of government, which is the U.S. Congress, as it is not being able to find common ground on any and all issues, especially in recent past.

That seemed to have been a curse that has been following through last year, from the debt ceiling and deficit reduction talks through to the payroll tax cut that has ended up with only a two month extension instead of twelve months.

Now Congress is back in session, and all kinds of planning has come with members to deal with the many problems that the country is facing, from the slow economy and high unemployment rate to staving off Iran from initiating any type of conflict with the U.S., whether it is economic or involving a military action.

The election year has given many factions the opportunity to be stoic, because they wanted to win the White House, but their goals must not be achieved at the expense of the nation. There should be peace and unity within the country's borders, to enable it to meet any type of adversity and defeat it, overcome it or win over it.

President Barack Obama has shown that he was willing to work with Congress; and in all the dealings that transpired in 2011, he has done all he could to unite the country; with meetings and telephone calls to both leaders and floor members of the two law making chambers; but he has always ran into a brick wall with just a few of them, particularly, in the House of Representatives, whose aim was not to bring a transformation in government, but a total change of government instead.

If only some lawmakers could relent their opposition and be thoughtful of the country first, rather than of party ideology, there would be a change in the attitude of the American public, because there would be signs of compromises that were needed to build bonds and common ties in Congress, and that scenario would reflect in society.

The headline, "How Congress can hurt the economy." summed it all up by saying, "Having a divisive Congress back in session could produce some nasty side effects for the nation’s still struggling economy." (Politico.com, 01/18/12. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71557.html#ixzz1joKDGq2D).

However, should the country expect that? Of course, there would be differences of opinion and complete consensus would be hard to come by in a year, which was politically loaded. The Republican Party's nomination race would finally pit someone against Obama; and whoever that was would present a path that the country should go.

So would the Democratic Party, whose candidate would not be anyone, but Obama; and the party would also have plans to pursue, in regard to all the "issues". Yet, what would be required of both parties would be cooperation, instead of outright rejection of each other's ideas.

There were some issues that they (parties) might feel very strongly about, such as abortion and its effect on the high cost of Medicaid, and the costly food stamps distribution, which has warranted Newt Gingrich, a candidate in the Republican nomination race to call Obama "The food stamps president,"

Such issues were contributing to the enormous spending by the government, which the opposition wanted to cut. Just as well as social entitlement programs, which were becoming too many for the country to be able to afford them. Some must be cut to streamline the government's yearly budget, which was bloating the national debt of $15 Trillion dollars, and making it worse.

In other words, some of those issues were extremely hard core manifestations, presenting the nation with problems beyond its capacity; however, they should not be made to divide us. Solutions were what they needed, and they (solutions) could only come about, when leaders of society would put their heads together to find a way out of situations of any nature.

Americans could not go to war against each other; for as far as war was concerned, there were enough entities on the outside wanting one with the U.S. They were doing so out of sheer envy; for America was strong, in every sense of the word, and they (outsiders) would want to be like that.

Political parties in a Democracy were there to sustain a country; and not to divide it, for whatever differences that they might have between them (parties), all kinds of ways and means must be found to resolve them.